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Noel Fehily Racing has grown organically – and rapidly. Having started out in 2019 with just a “couple of horses for a bit of fun” it now has over 30 in training, Fehily talks about the unplanned progression
NOEL FEHILY was one of the very best jump jockeys among a golden generation. He won 1,352 races under NH rules, including 27 Grade 1s. Among the top-notchers he partnered to victory are the likes of Altior, Buveur D’Air, Master Minded, Rock On Ruby and Silviniaco Conti.
Fehily may have retired from the weighing room in March 2019, but his presence is still being felt at the highest level of the sport thanks to his eponymous ownership group. The Noel Fehily Racing syndicate has 31 horses in training spread across 16 different trainers. The outfit has already tasted Grade 1 success and has even enjoyed a Cheltenham Festival winner.
But this rise to prominence was not part of some post-retirement masterplan. Instead, the syndicate has grown organically from a conversation with his old friend and weighing room colleague David Crosse.
“It all came about after I finished riding,” says Fehily. “Basically I retired at the end of March in 2019 and I was having a chat with David Crosse one day and we said we’d do something together.
“He had a little bit of knowledge about syndicates as he’d been involved with some while he was riding so we decided to give it a go with a couple of horses and have a bit of fun.
"Did I think we’d get to the numbers we’re at now? No, I didn’t. It’s just snowballed from there.”
The omens were there from the start as the syndicate’s first runner, Pride Of Lecale, made a winning start in Fehily’s colours at Market Rasen in November 2019.
However, Fehily says the ambition was always to aim a little higher than humble midweek handicaps.
“Both of us were always keen to try and get a couple of better class horses to take us to better meetings,” he says. “So maybe not loads of numbers, but we were always very keen to try to get better quality horses. It doesn’t always work out but it has a few times.
“We put our hands in our own pockets to start with because we found out very quickly that you can’t sell something you don’t have.
We had to go out and buy the horses before we could sell the shares, so we had to risk our own money to get us started.”
Fehily’s involvement in the syndicate has seen him make a rapid return to the racecourse after his retirement from the saddle. Although there has been plenty to celebrate, being on the other side of the weighing room door has taken some getting used to.
“When I started getting into the syndicate side of things I found going racing a bit strange,” he says. “When you were riding you’d walk into the racecourse and go hide in the weighing room, go out and ride and go back into the weighing room again. At a lot of the racecourses I didn’t even know where the owners and trainers bar was!
“I felt a bit lost when I first started going racing with the syndicate’s horses, which was a bit strange as I’d been to most of the racecourses hundreds of times.”
Fehily was famed for his unflappable temperament during his time as a jockey, but he admits he has not carried that through to his new role.
“I’m probably a lot more nervous watching them than I was riding them,” he says. “You feel more in control when you’re riding them, but there’s not a lot you can do when you’re standing in the stands, so you can feel a bit helpless.”
On the make-up of the syndicate’s members, Fehily says: “There’s plenty of people that David and I would’ve ridden for, but a lot of people who are new to racing too, which is one of the best parts of it.
“Some of the members have never been involved in owning a horse before. If they have a winner, the enjoyment they get out of it is fantastic to see.
Some of them might go on to own a horse on their own outright one day, and if we can bring people into the sport then that’s even better.”
January 7, 2023 proved to be a red letter day for Noel Fehily Racing as the team recorded a notable double at Sandown. Love Envoi kicked proceedings off by landing the Listed mares’ hurdle before Tahmuras provided the syndicate with its first top-flight triumph with a clear-cut victory in the Grade 1 Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle.
“That was a fantastic day,” says Fehily. “To win a Listed race and a Grade 1 on the same day was fairly special. The Tolworth is a decent race and to have a horse of Tahmuras’s quality is just fantastic. He’s been a great horse for us since as well.”
Love Envoi has arguably been an even greater servant, winning seven races for the syndicate and taking her owners to the biggest stage in National Hunt racing. She provided Noel Fehily Racing with its first Cheltenham Festival winner with only its second runner at the meeting when landing the 2022 renewal of the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.
“She’s been an absolute superstar,” says Fehily. “She’s a really good, tough mare. She’d won her bumper when we bought her at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale that was held at Newmarket in 2021 and she’s just gone from strength to strength.
“Just to go to Cheltenham with a runner for the syndicate was massive. She obviously had a chance because she’d won the Grade 2 at Sandown [Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle] before that, but did I think she’d win? Never in a million years.
“I know how hard it is to win around Cheltenham and she was only our second runner there. It was an absolute fairytale. It was unbelievable to see her owners’ reaction. The enjoyment they got out of it was fantastic.
The ride they’ve been on the whole way through with Love Envoi has been amazing. I hope they all appreciate it because they might be a long time waiting for another one as good as her.”
Love Envoi returned to Prestbury Park the following year to tackle the Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle. She duly played her part in arguably the most stirring finish of the meeting. She made most of the running and had only Honeysuckle for company approaching the last. Love Envoi touched down in front and battled only determinedly up the hill, but was ultimately collared inside the final 100 yards.
She may have come off second best but it was such a game effort that she lost little in defeat. Fehily recounts that career-best effort with a mixture of pride and anguish.
“If someone had told me in the morning that we’d get beat a length and a half into second by Honeysuckle I’d have been absolutely delighted, but when she jumped the last, I actually thought we had it for a couple of strides,” he says. “I’ve probably never been as disappointed as I was after that race.
“It took me a couple of days to get over it, I can tell you. I thought she ran an absolute stormer. I thought she had it but then Honeysuckle came back and did us. It felt like the rug being pulled from under your feet. But what a super mare Honeysuckle’s been and for the De Bromhead story as well, they were deserving winners on the day. If anyone was going to beat us, I’m glad it was them.”
The team hasn’t always spoken about Love Envoi in such glowing terms, however, as Fehily explains she initially hid her light under a bushel after they purchased her from Sean Doyle through Jerry McGrath for just £38,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham March Sale in 2021.
“She’d won her bumper and looked like she showed a good attitude,” he says. “She was a good, solid model and we liked her as an individual when we saw her at the sales.
“She’s a mare who’s never shown an awful lot at home so before she first ran over hurdles we were thinking what have we bought here because she wasn’t showing us anything. But she won that first time at Leicester and has carried on improving from there.
“She’s been a wonderful mare. I wouldn’t mind finding a few more like her!”
Love Envoi brought the curtain down on her racing career at this year’s Cheltenham Festival with a respectable fifth to Lossiemouth in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle. She is set to begin the next phase of her life after coming under the hammer at the Goffs Aintree Sale on April 11.
“It’s very hard to know what to expect,” says Fehily. “When a horse goes into a sales ring you need two people to take each other on. It’s hard to know how she’ll sell, but I’m hoping she’ll make more than we paid for her anyway.”
While selling Love Envoi may be new territory for Noel Fehily Racing, the syndicate has already shown it is well capable of pulling some smart moves at the sales. The recruitment strategy is something Fehily has placed particular emphasis on.
“The sales is probably the hardest part of the whole process, trying to select the right horses at the right money,” he says.
“The price of horses has gone up since we started buying and you’ve either got to go with it or get left behind.
“When we started out, we had trainers who’d mention a horse to us and say ‘He’d do a syndicate’, which used to insult me a little bit. There probably used to be that notion that a horse could just give a syndicate a day out, but I’d like to think we’re getting a better quality horse than that.
“We like a horse with a bit of form who is ready to crack on so we don’t have to wait 18 months to find out if they’re any good or not.
“We’ve bought one or two unraced horses, but they would’ve been horses who were close to running whom we could have a sit on. We’ve probably been luckiest with pointto-pointers, but we’ve bought off the Flat and from France, too. Basically we’ll buy a horse from anywhere if we can see the form and the price is right.”
Steering a course through the sales is not a new experience for Fehily, who keeps a six-strong broodmare band and raises youngstock at Hagg Hill Farm ten miles southeast of Bath.
“I’ve always been very interested in the breeding and youngstock side,” he says.
“I’ve got a few broodmares and buy a few foals every year. I’ve always had a mad interest in the youngsters. Anything I have as youngstock I sell as stores. That’s my passion. I’m not sure I make an awful lot of money out of it, but it’s more of a hobby than anything.”
Fehily identifies Golden Horn, Jack Hobbs, Santiago and Walk In The Park as the sires who are helping him form his latest round of mating plans. There has been no bigger advertisement for the fruits of his labour than Crambo, winner of the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle for Fergal O’Brien.
“I bred Crambo with Jared Sullivan and now Jared owns him together with Chris Giles, so I’ve been following him very keenly,” he says.
“The dam was in a sale in France and was in-foal to Saddler Maker who had just died but I was a big fan of his, so I said to Jared we should buy her.
“We did and Crambo was the first foal we bred out of her. Unfortunately we lost the mare a couple of years ago but I have the four-year-old half-sister to Crambo, who’ll go to Fergal after Cheltenham.”
For now, though, Fehily’s focus is firmly on the syndicate. The outfit may have already come a long way in a short space of time, but there is plenty more to look forward to.
“I wouldn’t mind adding a couple more horses, but I’d love to keep it around the numbers we’ve got,” he says on what the future holds for Noel Fehily Racing.
“Maybe at some stage we might dip our toe in the water with a Flat horse or two but at the moment we’re happy sticking with the NH side of it. That will always be our main focus. I definitely didn’t expect it to become such a big thing. We started out with two horses and I thought we might grow to five or six. I never thought for a second that we’d get to where we are now.”
He may not have seen this career path coming, but Fehily clearly relishes remaining a competitive participant in a sport he has been at the forefront of for over two decades.
“I’d done everything I wanted to do while I was riding, and I enjoyed every minute of it,” he says. “I’d do it all over again tomorrow if I woke up and was 20 years of age.
"I was 43 when I retired so I’d milked it fairly well and I was ready to stop. I can’t say I’ve woken up any morning since saying ‘I wish I was going racing today’.
“Obviously when you’re standing there leaving the parade ring for the big races, the Gold Cups and the Tingle Creeks, you can’t help but think you’d wish you could have one more go, but as for the rest of it, I’ve done my bit. I did it for 20 years and don’t have a pain or an ache so I count myself very lucky.
“It’s very hard to replace the feeling of riding a big winner at places like Cheltenham, but running the syndicate is as close as I think you’ll get.
“There’s a lot involved in the process because you’ve got to buy the horse, sell the shares, go through the process of getting the horse to the races. There’s a great buzz from that side of it.”
